The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Ohio Hospitals Seek Federal Help To Fight Prescription Drug Addiction
Representatives of Ohio's children's hospitals visited Capitol Hill this week to seek aid in fighting a growing prescription drug abuse problem that's made drug overdoses Ohio's top cause of death and has dramatically increased the number of babies born addicted to drugs. Carrie Baker of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association, who adopted a baby born with opiate dependency, said the number of drug addicted babies nationwide increased 800 percent between 2004 and 2013. (Eaton, 9/17)

News Service of Florida:
Supreme Court Urged To Take Up Claim Dispute
An appeals court Wednesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to take up a dispute about the constitutionality of a 2012 legislative move that limited fees paid to attorneys who represented a child severely injured at birth. A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in July upheld the fee limit, which was included in a legislative "claim" bill for the child, Aaron Edwards. But the appeals court Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to resolve the constitutional issue, a legal step known as certifying a question to the Supreme Court. (9/17)

The New York Times:
Immigrants Fight Texas’ Birth Certificate Rules
At the Republican debate on Wednesday and throughout the campaign, candidates led by Donald J. Trump have assailed illegal immigration, and some have questioned whether children who are born to immigrants in this country illegally should be considered American citizens.
But here on the Texas border some local officials are engaged in activities that go beyond talk, enforcing some of the toughest rules in the country limiting the types of ID parents can show to receive copies of birth certificates. The result has been a refusal to issue birth certificates to many of the Texas-born children of immigrants here illegally. ... Without a birth certificate, illegal immigrants say they cannot have newborns baptized, have had difficulty enrolling their children in day care and school and have lost or fear losing Medicaid coverage and other government services and benefits for their families. They said officials required birth certificates for these programs, as proof of parenthood or the child’s Texas birth. (Fernandez, 9/17)

The Associated Press:
Communities Making Efforts To Become ‘Dementia Friendly’
The hope in Watertown is to have as many businesses as possible learn more about how to better serve people whose decline in memory or other thinking skills is affecting their everyday activities. The goal is to train 75 percent of the community’s businesses by 2016, said Jan Zimmerman, director of dementia outreach and education for The Lutheran Home Association, which runs retirement communities in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Florida. (Antlfinger, 9/18)

Kaiser Health News:
How One Home Health Agency Earned Five Stars
Home health agencies are a segment of the medical industry that you may not know about if you or a loved one has never needed one. The companies send therapists and nurses into the homes of Medicare patients to help them recover from an illness or surgery. This summer the federal government started rating home health agencies – doling out one to five stars – to give consumers a better picture of the job they do. The top grades were elusive: only 239 agencies out of 9,000 nationwide earned five stars, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. (Tomsic, 9/18)

The Detroit Free Press:
ACLU: Hospital Denied Tubal Ligation To Woman With Tumor
A Flint-area Catholic hospital has until the end of Friday to change its mind and perform a tubal ligation on a pregnant woman with a brain tumor – or face a potential lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is fighting on behalf of Jessica Mann, 33, of Flushing, a pregnant woman with a life-threatening brain tumor who was denied a request to get her tubes tied at the time of her scheduled C-section next month. (Baldas, 9/18)

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